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Well, if you didn’t know it, all PaulTech writers, so far, hail from the great state of Ohio. It’s a state full of amazing oddities and sundry blunders. Last year it was the great CoinGate scandal that rocked our state and made Bob Taft blush. Yeah, and it really ticked most of us citizens off. It’s enough to get most anyone depressed. And that’s not even talking about all the woes of the ‘Nati (Cincinnati). And now, here we are again. This time it’s the good workers of the State of Ohio that have been bamboozled - and it’s of technological interest.
Our newest Governor made a press release today. The governor’s website indicated that backup media containing all 64,467 state employees’ names and social security numbers had been stolen. The backup media was being inappropriately taken to an intern’s house for offsite backup of the state’s records. Doh! And this is the part I really love:
“Because the data was contained on a specialized medium, Strickland said it is highly unlikely that the data could be accessed by someone without the knowledge of how to do so.”
Well, I’m sure someone reading up on the news story now understands that they can employ someone with some tech savvy to get at that data. I don’t believe it when non technical people tell me that it’s unlikely that data could be compromised. Now, that may be coming down from Stickland’s technical advisor’s, but I still don’t believe it.
Strickland’s office immediately went on the offensive to combat that kind of problem by issuing Executive Order 2007 – 013S, Improving State Agency Data Privacy and Security. Also, the State of Ohio has set up an id protection website. The site states:
“Governor Strickland has directed the Department of Administrative Services to secure the opportunity for state employees to access free identity theft prevention and protection services for one year. More information will be forthcoming on access to these free services in the near future. Employees are advised to wait for information on these free services from this web site prior to acquiring any such prevention and protection services.“
I would highly recommend State of Ohio employees to take advantage of that service when it becomes available. And I would also take all proactive measures to guard against identity theft. Look at the Federal Trade Commission’s site on identity theft for starters. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
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and to think they have my tax records….
sure makes you wonder what else is mismanaged
[…] backup media device from the State of Ohio was stolen earlier this week. And that the device had State of Ohio workers’ sensitive information on it. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Nope, like watching an accident on icy roads, you […]